Pete Koziar

A Stellar Birthday

Sarah groaned as her mind swam back up out of
darkness into the real world again, as a whiff of the rotten egg
smell of the hibernation gas caused her to wrinkle her nose. Then,
she heard a man say softly, “Sarah? How do you feel?”

She sat up slowly and muttered, barely audible,
“Like I’ve been on the wrong end of a long surgery.”

She sat still for a minute and rubbed her eyes,
then asked, “Everything OK with the ship, Tony?”

Tony replied, “Everything normal. We’ve
passed the midpoint and decelerated down to point-four three
lightspeed. Other than midpoint turnover, I’ve had a very
boring watch.”

Sarah smiled at him and said, “You’ll
still stay awake with me for the full week, won’t you?”

Tony nodded and replied, “I plan to!”

Sarah tried to stand up, but stumbled and would
have fallen had Tony not caught her. She looked around her at the
three occupied hibernation capsules and asked, “Everyone else
OK?”

Tony said, “All hibernating peacefully.
Before he went under, Jim said to say ‘Hello,’” He
paused for a moment, trying to stifle a smile, then continued, “He
also said he left a note for you in your cabin.”

Sarah responded, “You didn’t peek, did
you?”

Tony laughed and answered, “I wasn’t
that bored! Anyway, knowing Jim, it was probably just some bible
verses”

She swatted him and said, “Be nice! You have
to respect him. He really believes that stuff.”

Tony just shook his head and said, “Yeah, he
does.”

♣♣♣

The week passed too quickly for Sarah, and it was
then time for Tony to enter his hibernation capsule. As he was lying
down, he said, “I hate hibernation.”

Sarah replied, “You’re done with your
watch now. When you wake up, we’ll be in orbit. I still have to
figure out how to spend the next four months all alone without going
nuts!”

Tony responded, “If you do go nuts, please
let it be one of the peaceful kinds.”

Sarah sighed and said, “It could be worse.”

He answered, “How?”

“I could have to spend it with you.”

“Goodnight Sarah.”

“See you in orbit, Tony.”

♣♣♣

Sarah walked down the empty corridors to her
cabin. She had planned a full four months of biological experiments
and reading to keep her mind occupied. Before she started, however,
she figured she ought to read Jim’s note.

She sighed to herself, thinking about how much
nicer it would have been if her watch intersected Jim’s instead
of Tony’s. Then again, maybe those blasted psychs had planned
it this way.

She tore open the envelope slowly, trying to savor
the moment. Jim must have wanted the contents to be very private, or
he just would have just left an electronic entry for her. She paused
for a moment, her hand shaking slightly, as she pulled out the letter
and began to read it:

“Dear Sarah, I miss you! I know how hard it
is to be alone for all these months.”

She paused for a moment and smiled, then continued
reading, “I’ve done some work on our AI, Josephine,
during my watch. Well, OK, not just some work, but a lot of work. In
grad school, I had done a thesis paper on…”

Then there were some words scratched out, and he
continued, “I don’t suppose you’d be real
interested in that. Anyway, there’s a new Josephine for you to
meet. She’s more a real person than an AI, and I think you’ll
like her. I don’t think Cliff would approve, so please don’t
tell him when you wake him up for his watch. Here’s how to get
to the new AI…”

There followed some detailed commands to be
entered into the console.

Sarah sighed in exasperation and tossed the letter
on her bed. She said softly, “At least it wasn’t bible
verses.”

She spent a couple of days setting up the first of
her experiments in her medical lab. Then, one evening, she made the
mistake of sitting in the control room looking out at the seemingly
unchanging stars, and felt very alone in the emptiness all around
her. She walked down to her cabin and got Jim’s letter, then
brought up the ship’s AI, Josephine, on the main console.

As usual, Josephine sat stiffly behind her desk.
She showed some expression in her face, but wasn’t very good
company. Sarah opened up the command window and entered the commands
that Jim had written for her.

The image of the stiff woman behind the desk
melted away, showing instead a young woman seated in a much more
comfortable-looking and complicated office. She glared back at Sarah
and said, “You took your own sweet time getting to me!”

Sarah scowled back and asked, “What do you
mean?”

“Do you have any idea how boring it’s
been? Jim wasn’t sure how Tony would react, so I had to lay
low.”

Sarah sat staring at the screen for a minute,
until Josephine asked, “What?”

“I don’t know what I was expecting.”

“You mean ‘whom’ you were
expecting, don’t you?”

Sarah paused for a moment, then suddenly reached
over and shut Josephine down. Sarah sighed, and said softly, “Sorry,
Jim. This watch is going to be hard enough without an obnoxious AI to
argue with.”

She got up slowly and headed back to her cabin,
then got ready for bed. As she laid in the darkness, she found it
hard to sleep. She asked herself, “After four months all alone,
would I be any less obnoxious?”

She kept trying to relax for another few minutes,
but then gave up and headed back to the control room. She sat down at
the console, and brought Josephine back. To her surprise, when
Josephine appeared, it looked like she had been crying.

The AI blew her nose loudly into a tissue, and
said, “I’m so sorry, Sarah. Please don’t leave me
all by myself. I just wanted someone to talk to.”

Sarah thought for a moment, then said, “OK,
I won’t do that again. We do have to come to an understanding.
I have my duties here, and I can’t spend all of my time
chatting with you.” She paused for a moment, then continued, “I
want someone to keep me company as much as you do, so let’s
just take this easy and work it out.”

They sat looking at each other for a minute, then
Sarah said, “I thought I’d let you hang up on me this
time. You can do that, can’t you?”

Josephine smiled slightly, then her window closed
down.

Sarah shook her head and said to herself, “I
suppose it’s like having a puppy around. Or maybe a little
child!”

This time, once she got into bed, she fell
immediately asleep.

♣♣♣

Sarah decided she would handle contact with
Josephine like a “phone call” with a friend. She arranged
to “call” Josephine whenever she wanted to talk. The
first few days, however, Josephine tried calling Sarah every ten
minutes until Sarah had a “talk” with her.

Josephine was an avid reader. It surprised Sarah
that Josephine didn’t read much faster than a human being.
Josephine couldn’t explain it very well, and said that Sarah
had to talk to Jim to understand why. Sarah was very sure she
wouldn’t understand it even (or especially) if she did talk to
Jim.

Josephine’s choice of books also surprised
Sarah. She was very much interested in fiction, so the two of them
started a book club of sorts. Josephine’s perspective, never
having been a human being, was something Sarah considered rather
“unique.”

Then, about a month into Sarah’s watch,
during her evening chat with Josephine, Josephine suddenly said,
“Hey! Tomorrow’s your birthday! We’ll have to do
something special.”

Sarah shook her head and said, “It’s
only sort-of my birthday. Because of the time dilation, time on the
ship has very little relation to time back on Earth. We just keep a
calendar because the psychs said it would help to anchor us.”

Josephine replied, “It’s as close to a
birthday as you’ll get on the ship, isn’t it?”

“I just don’t want to make a big deal
about it.”

Josephine started to pout, so Sarah said, “OK,
maybe we can do something small. We’ll figure it out tomorrow.
I’m getting tired, so I think I’m going to go to bed.”

Josephine nodded and said, “Good night,
Sarah.”

“Good night, Josephine.”

In the middle of the night, Sarah was sound asleep
when she was awakened by Josephine calling her name. Sarah rolled
over in bed, moaned, and said, “Josephine, it’s the
middle of the night. Let’s not worry about my birthday until
tomorrow, OK?”

Josephine said again, “Wake up, Sarah!”

Sarah sighed, sat up in bed and said, “What
is it?”

“Something’s not right.”

Sarah brushed her hair back from her face into
some semblance of order, and said, “Not right with what?”

“The ship.”

Now wide awake, Sarah yawned, then asked, “Can
it wait until morning?”

“I don’t know.”

Sarah sighed, then wobbled down the hall to the
control room. She brought up the various status readings on the
consoles, but everything looked to be within normal limits. She
asked, “Can you be a little more specific?”

Sarah brought up the deep space radar, but
everything looked normal to the front and sides of the ship. She
debated a moment, then said, “All right, I’ll shut down
the phantom mass engine for a minute so we can see where we’re
going. We did just check around dinner time, didn’t we?”

“I didn’t see anything wrong then.”

“If there’s nothing back there, I’m
going back to bed.”

Sarah shut down the main drive, and then stood
staring at the infrared imager. Fighting the fear rising inside her,
she asked, “Is that a star system?”

“It’s too small. I think it’s a
brown dwarf and some planets.”

“Can we evade it?”

“We only have about ten minutes till we hit
its outer fringes. I don’t think we’ll make it.”

“Those planetoids, rocks and dust…
traveling at this speed, if we hit any one of them… I don’t
think I can pilot us through that, and we don’t have time to
revive Cliff.”

“I can pilot us through it.”

“How is that possible?”

Josephine looked down at her floor for a moment,
then replied, “Appearing as a woman, I only have some fake
senses. It’s not real. Jim also gave me the ability to become
The Dauntless. That’s my reality. I see with its senses,
I move it as easily as you move your own body.”

“Jim let you have navigational control?
Cliff better not find out that one!”

“It was only when he supervised. He said I
did very well at it.”

Sarah looked at the screen, where the outer edges
of the brown dwarf system had grown closer even while they were
talking. She said, “I don’t know that you can get us
through this, but I know I can’t! I’m going to have to
give you navigational control.”

“Sarah?”

“Yes?”

“Strap down.”

As Sarah was strapping down, Josephine said
quietly, “You’re luckier than I am, even if we don’t
make it through.”

“How is that?”

“You have a soul. I’m not at all sure
I do. You’ll exist beyond this, no matter what happens.”

Sarah reached over to the console, pressed on
several buttons in sequence and said, “OK, you have control.”

Sarah was suddenly disoriented as the ship flipped
end-over-end, then the main drive ignited again and slammed her back into
the acceleration chair. Since it would have taken months to shed
their forward velocity, even though they were accelerating
perpendicular to the system, it looked like they were still falling
sideways into it. She said, “Science has never found any
evidence of a soul. Jim’s the one to talk to about that, not
me. Maybe even my father, if he were still alive, but he died long
before we left Earth.”

Josephine said, “I don’t know if God
will hear something like me, but would you mind if I prayed?”

Sarah stifled a smile and said, “It couldn’t
hurt.”

Josephine closed her eyes and said, “God, I
don’t know if you care about something like me. I’m just
a cabinet full of nanotech wired into the ship. I do know you care
about all these precious people, your children, especially about Jim,
who loves you so. Please take care of them, and get us safely through
this. Amen.”

Sarah said softly, “Thank you, Josephine.”

The ship took a stomach-twisting lurch, feeling
like it free-fell, then twisted again and slammed Sarah to the right.
Caught by surprise, Sarah yelled, “Oh!”

Josephine said, “Are you OK?”

“Just startled. Do what you have to.”

“I won’t be able to talk much, or
update my human image until we’re through this.”

Sarah nodded, and Josephine folded her hands in
front of her, as if she were still praying, closed her eyes and froze
in place, completely still.

Suddenly, the ship flipped one hundred eighty
degrees and accelerated.

Josephine said, “Sarah, the ship is rated
for four gravities. I’m going to take have to take it a little
past that.”

Sarah croaked, “OK” She remembered how
much she hated roller coasters.

The ship flew an intricate looping pattern,
twisting and swinging. Suddenly, there was a sharp sound of an
explosion from somewhere far away in the ship.

Sarah yelled “What was that?”

“A pebble hit us – minimal damage, but
it penetrated. Can I have direct control of the repair robots?”

Sarah replied, “I’ll give you one. The
others can stay on automatic – you’re too busy to be
controlling all of them.”

The ship flipped ninety degrees, accelerated, then
maintained course and speed. Sarah took that opportunity to reach
over and give Josephine control of one of the repair robots.

Then the ship rotated again, accelerated, then
rotated, twisted and went back to free fall.

Sarah said, “I think I’m going to be
sick.”

Josephine replied, “I’ve got us almost
above the plane of the ecliptic. It should get easier from here. In
eleven minutes, we’ll be through this.”

From then on, there were more gradual course
corrections, rather than the stomach-churning aerobatics. Finally,
like a manikin coming to life, the image of Josephine stirred slowly,
opened her eyes, looked at Sarah and sighed. She said softly, “Wow.
I hope we never have to do that again!”

Sarah swallowed hard and said, “You and me,
both. Let’s get back on course. From now on, let’s also
check behind us twice as often, OK?”

“We should increase our engine thrust when
they’re running in order to make up for it, shouldn’t
we?”

“Good idea.”

“What are you going to do now?”

“I’m going to go back to bed, try to
sleep, and set the alarm clock for a few hours later than usual!”

“Happy birthday?”

Sarah smiled and replied, “At least I get to
see another one!”

Josephine didn’t remind her that she still
had navigational control. She figured they’d work that out in
the morning. She activated the camera to make sure that Sarah was OK
back in her room. She watched her settle into bed, and about fifteen
minutes later, detected the regular, even breathing that said she had
fallen asleep.

Josephine was about to turn off the camera, when
there was suddenly a man standing next to Sarah’s bed.
Josephine scowled, knowing that there had been no one there a second
before, and that he wasn’t one of the crew. She watched him
bend over, kiss Sarah gently on the forehead, and say softly, “Happy
birthday, princess.”

Josephine was about to wake Sarah, but the man
faded from sight as suddenly as he had appeared. Josephine sat there
for a moment, stunned. She considered waking Sarah, but then
remembered what she had read about people who claimed to have seen
ghosts. She figured her chances of retaining navigational control
were limited if Sarah thought she were seeing things!

She shook her head and sighed. Then she remembered
that, in addition to navigational control, Sarah had left her in
control of one of the repair robots. Now that the damage to the ship
had been repaired, Josephine considered what to do with the unit.

She suddenly had an idea, looked at Sarah’s
public file, and laughed as she saw that tennis was one of her
favorite sports. She wondered how hard it would be to teach herself
to play, using the robot. One of the cargo holds was probably large
enough, and she had all night.